WTO closes $1T trade deal in Bali

The World Trade Organization on Saturday reached a deal on customs issues that officials say could boost global economic output by as much as $1 trillion, but only after a negotiating session that went into overtime.

After resolving a deadlock over India’s food security plans that threatened to derail the pact, negotiators then confronted a block by Cuba and some of its allies in Latin America who said they objected to the pact because it does not ease the long-time U.S. economic embargo on the Communist-run island. Cuba and the other countries dropped their resistance after meeting with U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman, according to diplomatic sources.

Discussions ran a day past when they were to end and kept many trade officials from boarding their scheduled flights for yet another trade negotiation meeting — the next round of Trans-Pacific Partnership talks, in Singapore.